Some Democrats partly blame the party’s stance on transgender rights for Harris’ loss

Desperate for answers about what went wrong on Election Day, finger-pointing has been quick among Democrats and media pundits. Many – privately – hold President Joe Biden responsible. Others blame the operatives who have run the party’s last several campaigns. But some point to an issue with far less power in American politics: transgender rights.

“Democrats need to stop pandering to the far left,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, DN.Y., to New York Times on Wednesday. “I don’t want to discriminate against anyone, but I don’t think biological boys should play girls’ sports.”

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., shared a similar view, says the Times on Thursday: “Democrats spend far too much time trying not to offend anyone instead of being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls. I don’t want them being run over on a playground by a male or former male athlete, but as a Democrat I should be afraid to say that.”

Representatives for Suozzi and Moulton did not immediately return a request for comment.

In Texas, where the fight for transgender rights has become particularly fierce in recent years, the then chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa. a local radio station told that “You can support transgender rights up and down all the categories where the issue comes up, or you can understand that there are certain things that we just go too far with that a large part of our population doesn’t support.”

Hinojosa issued an apology on X Wednesday, saying he “failed to communicate my thoughts with care and clarity” before resigning amid Democratic losses on Friday.

Brad Pritchett, the interim executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, condemned Hinojosa’s comments and the broader argument by some Democrats that transgender people contributed to Democratic losses.

“This is something that Democrats need to stop and remember what their values ​​are,” Pritchett said in an interview with NBC News. “We live and run campaigns according to the values ​​we hold dear.”

He also said Democrats should not “alienate” some of their most loyal supporters. Eighty-six percent of LGBTQ voters said they supported Vice President Kamala Harris, compared to 12% who said they supported Donald Trump, according to NBC News exit polling of 10 key states.

Between the 2020 and 2024 elections, transgender rights have become a political flashpoint in the nation’s culture wars.

Thousands of anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in state legislatures across the country, many of them specifically targeting transgender Americans, according to figures from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Corporate America was also drawn into the fray, with US brands like Bud Light facing huge backlash for partnering with trans influencers. And perhaps nothing sparked more conversation than the issue of transgender girls and women competing in girls’ and women’s sports.

In 2022, a string of victories by transgender athlete Lia Thomas as a member of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team sparked global headlines and conservative outrage. Thomas’ victory in the NCAA swimming championships drew particular ire. This past summer, conspiracy theories that Olympic boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria was not born a woman exploded online, drawing atypical attention to women’s sports at the Paris Games.

During the campaign, Republicans spent more than $200 million on network TV ads centered on transgender issues this year, according to data shared with NBC News by AdImpact, a research firm that tracks political ad spending.

Ads touting Harris’ past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming treatments ran repeatedly during NFL and college football games last month. The ads ended with the tagline: “Kamala is for them/them; President Trump is for you.”

Harris largely avoided the issue on the trail and in interviews, and it was notably absent from this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Asked if she thought transgender Americans should have access to gender-affirming treatment in this country, Harris told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson, “That’s a decision that doctors will make based on what’s medically necessary.” Pressed further, she said: “I believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, period, and should not be vilified for who they are, and should not be bullied for who they are.”

The Harris campaign’s LGBTQ engagement director, Sam Alleman, urged voters not to blame transgender people for Harris’ loss.

“Don’t blame trans issues or trans people for why we lost,” He wrote on X on Thursday. “No exit polling or data shows this as a significant decision point for voters.”

The issue voters most often cited as their No. 1 concern was “the state of democracy,” closely followed by the economy, according to NBC News exit polls.

Brianna Wu, a prominent transgender Democratic activist, told NBC News in an interview that the debate over trans rights has “radically changed” in recent years.

Wu ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in 2018 and 2020 and now hosts a podcast about trans perspectives called “Dollcast.”

“It’s moved from a message that says, ‘This is my body, this is how I feel most comfortable. Please let me do this and get on with my life,’ to being able to self-identify in women’s locker rooms, and women have to deal with seeing penises that are completely intact in front of them,” Wu said.

Wu believes that trans people must compromise on what the wider public is willing to accept regarding trans issues.

“Lots of gay men put on khakis and went on daytime TV to argue that love is love,” she said. “And yes, it’s kind of embarrassing, but you do what you have to do to talk to normal people.”